Tackling fashion’s throwaway culture

Three founding members of the Fashion Intelligence Project are (from left) Mary Anne Wahle, Mary Sheehan Warren and Nella Hennessy. The group of fashion professionals hopes to educate colleagues and consumers about the social impact of clothing. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

While working as personal stylists, local Catholics Mary Sheehan
Warren and Mary Anne Wahle combed through hundreds of closets, searched through
racks of clothing and ultimately helped their clients assemble practical,
flattering, fabulous wardrobes. As they sifted through skirts, they came to realize
that the quest for style often leaves shoppers the unhappy owners of too much
stuff. It’s one of the things that inspired Sheehan Warren, Wahle and other
like-minded fashionistas to form the Fashion Intelligence Project.

The fledgling organization hopes to be a network for fashion
industry professionals who educate clients, colleagues and friends about the
social impacts of fashion choices. They’re guided by four questions — do the
clothes dignify the person wearing them? Are the items truly needed? Were they
produced in a way that is fair to the workers? Was the item a product of a
system that is environmentally and economically sustainable?

In addition to their clients’ dissatisfaction, an international
tragedy led the women to take a hard look at the fashion industry. In the
spring of 2013, a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than
1,100 workers. “We were all deeply affected,” said Sheehan Warren, a
parishioner of Holy Spirit Church in Annandale.

Their upcoming workshop at the Yuma Center in Washington Sept. 30
is focused on thoughtful consumption. People may buy too many clothes, but
oftentimes it’s not the quantity but the quality. The demand for cheap clothing
begets poorly made items that don’t last. It also pressures manufacturers to
pay low wages and cover up the negative environmental impacts of their
production.

“It boggles your mind,” said Nella Hennessy about the amount of
cheap clothing available in malls today. Hennessey, a parishioner of St. Joseph
Church in Herndon, worked 10 years in New York City for Valentino Garavani and
now works at a non-profit. “You see the lines of young girls, young guys just
consuming and there has to be an end. All these clothes end up in a heap somewhere.”

Reading “Laudato Si’, on Care for
Our Common Home” and other writings of Pope Francis and past popes helped the
women realize the importance of factoring environmental consequences into
fashion consumption. “We believe in sustainability for the sake of the human
person,” said Sheehan Warren. “The planet was created for the human person —
part of God’s gift to His creation.”

One part of changing shopping habits for the better is tuning out
advertisements. As an adjunct professor teaching fashion marketing at The
Catholic University of America in Washington, Sheehan Warren sees the need for
consumers to understand the often harmful effects of advertising. One problem in
particular is hypersexualization — “that’s the undercurrent that’s being sold
to women,” said Wahle, a parishioner of St. Agnes Church in Arlington.

“(Advertising is) never truthful and it creates a myth,” said
Hennessey. “It's gotten to the point where there’s no more integrity, and it's
up to the consumer to be smart.”

That means being mindful of where you buy clothes and how often.
Buying higher quality clothing less frequently is a good way to slow the system
down, said Sheehan Warren. “The only way the problem is going to be solved is
in the hands of the consumer,” she said.

“It takes time to unlearn that behavior, to change your own
habits,” said Wahle, but the group believes even small steps can stop the
culture of waste. “The statistic that's floating around is that people wear a
garment four times before it's disposed of,” she said.

In addition to sharing practical tips, the Fashion Intelligence
Project workshop will host a professional clothing drive for Success in Style,
which coaches men and women looking for employment and provides them with suits
and accessories. The charity embodies the person-centered philosophy the Fashion
Intelligence Project wants to promote, said Sheehan Warren.

“We see ourselves as not only educating but telling the world
about all these great organizations that are already doing what we believe,”
she said.